Il Lombardia - The Italian Monument of Champions
Words Peter Easton // Photos by Photo Sport International In the final moments of his life, as he descended the Col de Portet d’Aspet in the French Pyrenées during the 1995 Tour de France’s 15th stage, one can only hope Fabio Casartelli thought of his beautiful wife Annalisa and his infant son, Marco. The 1992 Olympic Road Race Champion crashed hard on the Col and died en route to the hospital. Th e ESPN broadcast on July 18th showed the grisly scenes of the wreck, and the thrill of watching a bike race was replaced with the harsh reality of the dangers of competitive cycling. 20 years later, Casartelli’s bike hangs in the small chapel of Madonna del Ghisallo, above Lake Como. Th e bike — with its gearing still in the 53x11and its front fork twisted from the crash — hangs as a memorial in the cycling shrine. The chapel of the patron saint of cycling honors both the joy and suff ering of cycling, and it is an icon during the fi nal Classic of the cycling season, Il Giro di Lomb...